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Back to Music as Biology: What We Like to Hear and Why

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Music as Biology: What We Like to Hear and Why by Duke University

4.3
stars
676 ratings

About the Course

The course will explore the tone combinations that humans consider consonant or dissonant, the scales we use, and the emotions music elicits, all of which provide a rich set of data for exploring music and auditory aesthetics in a biological framework. Analyses of speech and musical databases are consistent with the idea that the chromatic scale (the set of tones used by humans to create music), consonance and dissonance, worldwide preferences for a few dozen scales from the billions that are possible, and the emotions elicited by music in different cultures all stem from the relative similarity of musical tonalities and the characteristics of voiced (tonal) speech. Like the phenomenology of visual perception, these aspects of auditory perception appear to have arisen from the need to contend with sensory stimuli that are inherently unable to specify their physical sources, leading to the evolution of a common strategy to deal with this fundamental challenge....

Top reviews

TS

May 16, 2020

This course helped me to see music from a different angle i.e through history and biology. Prof. Dales is a wonderful human being and has a beautiful gift of explaining things in a much simpler way.

MM

Sep 21, 2016

This course has helped me to understand biological psychology of humans towards music. Based on this knowledge i am confident to create music which will seem good to the ears of humans.

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101 - 125 of 170 Reviews for Music as Biology: What We Like to Hear and Why

By Hooman S

Mar 24, 2016

Fantastic

By Camila P

Sep 8, 2020

Accurate

By Miguel Á

Jun 24, 2018

Great.

By Taozheng Z

Jul 12, 2021

Good

By Yana Y

Apr 28, 2020

The course was very interesting and created for me a new way of thinking about music. However some subjects were very difficult for me to understand. In simple words - things which I didn't know before (biology) I could hardly follow. And also the music theory - if I wasn't a professional musician, I couldn't have understood the explanations. I understood them, because I knew them.

By David B

Aug 3, 2016

Interesting and well presented. I completed the entire course, all lectures and assignments. However, week 1 is persistently listed as "overdue" even though it was actually completed ahead of time. Please remove from the "overdue" status which incessantly prompts me to join an upcoming new session. I enjoyed the course but this technical snafu is annoying.

By john d

Oct 19, 2018

I enjoyed the course even though it seemed to raise as many questions about music as it answered. As a song writer, I am constantly searching for that special melody which combines both voice and guitar, a combination not mentioned in the course. It seems like voice and music instruments for a unique relationship in music that I love.

By Tim M

Dec 21, 2016

A well presented course introducing good background material regarding the physiology of human sound perception. It loses marks from me because of its seemingly obsessive fixation on the vocalization similarity hypothesis as the basis for aesthetic preference in music without a rigorous presentation of supporting evidence.

By Helen W

Jun 23, 2020

As a student currently studying music, I thoroughly enjoyed this course. It has given me a greater understanding of why we enjoy music from a perceptive that is not usually covered from a musicians perspective. I am sure that this will make me consider many things differently in the future.

By Ana L M T

Oct 16, 2017

Para una persona que se dedica a la educación musical, este curso es de suma importancia , muestra las cuestiones biológicas que son el punto de partida para aprender sobre este maravilloso arte, esta completísimo y explicado de forma progresiva.

By Nathan W

Mar 9, 2021

An interesting and thought-provoking course that looks at the link between music and biology. Some of the questions and answers in the quizzes could be improved on in my opinion, but overall I enjoyed the content of the course.

By Mäynard S

Jan 26, 2016

The content is great. But there's not a lot of activity on the discussion boards, and there are some technical issues with the quizzes (using future lesson material on current quizzes). But the content is really fascinating.

By Tal K

Sep 11, 2017

I learned a lot from this course! So interesting! Not having a scientific background, I found some concepts a bit challenging and took some effort to get. But once understood I was amazed and was well worth the time put in!

By Ognjen Š

Oct 1, 2016

Quite an interesting course connecting various fields such as mathematics, physics, brain science, music and music theory. I am giving it 4 stars as I feel that some explanations are weak and need more elaboration.

By Robert D

Dec 13, 2017

This is a very fascinating view of the origins of musical intervals and scales and harmonies that I had never considered before. There is a lot I will follow up. Thanks to Dale Purves for making this available.

By Raymundo A

May 27, 2019

This course works fairly well for those who look forward to quenching their thirst of knowledge. It is not only useful for those who study a program related to the are, but also for inquisitive people

By Fabian A I M

Jun 13, 2020

It is a really useful course to know the most primal factors determining our inclination to like music. It has a lot of good empirical examples, and really good topics for each individual interest.

By Sandra A K

Aug 16, 2020

The technical aspects were a little difficult for me, and the tests didn´t always reflect the material taught, but it was an interesting class and gave me a new perspective on music.

By Jenifer N R N

Oct 20, 2017

It's a really good curse to learn and discover different facts about, music,biology (sense of hearing) and emotions. How is the mood sense affected by music.

By Margaret F

Sep 17, 2016

This course was fairly interesting. The argument that the notes of our scale are linked to human vocalisation, not just in the West, but the whole world.

By Christine

Jun 5, 2020

The course materials, videos and lectures were great. The quizzes were a bit odd - strange wording and sometimes out of order with the teaching units.

By Claire C

Sep 11, 2016

The very dull voice of the teacher makes him sound as if he is bothered about teaching the course.

interesting info otherwise.

By Linda t B

Aug 18, 2016

An interesting course about some biological aspects in music as well as some comparing examples between cultural styles.

By Nat L

Oct 1, 2022

Good introductory course on science behind music. Solid and interesting content. Little dry. Pianist is excellent.

By Jeong K

Jun 4, 2017

It was an interesting course and thought something novel. There was some difficulty in understanding scales.